Even as Himachal Pradesh started off well to check the spread of Covid-19 in mid of March, lax official strategy in handling the pandemic with more movement and activity in the third lockdown is a worrying point for the hill state.

Himachal, which had started looking up to corona free status till last week with only one active case left in 40 Covid-19 positive cases, has reported five more positive cases, including one death, in three days since Monday, taking the tally to 45 with two deaths so far. The active cases are now five, according to Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, RD Dhiman.

Three persons, two from Chamba and one from Kangra, tested positive for Covid-19 today.

The Covid19 positive person from Kangra had returned from Delhi on 27 April. His samples were taken yesterday after he developed a fever.

Official sources said initially the government took some timely decisions, whether it was to close schools, colleges or temples, ban on public gatherings and imposition of curfew instead of normal lockdown, with a committed team of health department led by Additional CS, Health, RD Dhiman working 24×7 behind the scenes.

Around 25 notifications were issued in a short period, which were urgently required to handle the pandemic, based on day to day developments and the state’s initiative of Active Case Finding (ACF) won appreciation from the Prime Minister as well.

“We went for curfew, which was a better option to make people stay at home. There were no Police excesses in Himachal and people too cooperated. In a way, there was no problem within the state and we could work out strategies well with maximum action. Such a large inter-state entry is an issue. But we are trying our best,” said Dhiman.

The state’s concern now is that over 85,000 people have entered the state over last week and thousands are in the waiting. The government, which invited criticism for allowing only influential people to come back from outside a few weeks ago, hastily issued passes later to majority applicants, a good number of them from Red zones in the country, under pressure from different quarters last week.

Field reports said while the focus remained implementation of curfew for a check within the state, the government allegedly took the issue of defined ‘quarantine protocol’ for outsiders lightly.

Sources said, to begin with, there were statements that people who would enter Himachal from outside would be tested at the border and will be kept in quarantine there if need be. However, suddenly with the decision to permit thousands of people together, it became impossible and the people were allowed in on the basis of screening by thermal scanners (which is supposedly not a foolproof system) at the border and were told to go in home-quarantine for 14 or 28 days based on zone.

Sources said in this process, while the norm of social distancing was thrown to winds with hundreds of people queuing up restlessly at one point, there were gaps in surveillance- although health workers are trying to keeping track of new entrants, who are home quarantined.

“The passes should be issued in a controlled manner while considering the zone the people are applying from. If things are not handled properly even now, it may invite more and more trouble,” said some health officials in the field. They suggest that the state should go for another round of Active Case Finding (ACF) for a door-to-door check to screen each and every resident, including new entrants again.